Trove of ancient gold rings buried with an 'extremely rich' woman discovered in Romania

Archaeologists in Romania have discovered an extraordinary cache of ancient gold rings worn in the hair of a 6,500-year-old woman.

A team from the Ţării Crişurilor Museum in Oradea, Romania, discovered the trove in a Copper Age grave, which included 169 gold rings, 800 bone beads, and an ornate spiraled copper bracelet, according to the Romanian outlet Agerpres.

The research was carried out this year on the road connecting Oradea and the A3 highway of Romania.

The size of the skeleton and the fact that it was buried without weapons led archaeologists to believe the remains belonged to a woman. The skeleton also revealed that she was tall and well-fed, and the good condition of her teeth added to the evidence that she was of elite status.

Between March 29 and June 25, MTC archaeologists conducted archaeological research with the assistance of other organizations, under the direction of Dr. Călin Ghemiş (Museum of Ai Crisurilor), Dr. hab. Molnar Kovacs Zsolt (Faculty of History and Philosophy of Babeş - Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca), Dr. Adrian Ursuţiu (Archaeo Center UBB - Institute of Archaeology and Art History, Romania.

"It is a phenomenal discovery. Such a treasure no longer exists in Central and Eastern Europe. It is a very strange matter because gold had just been discovered in the Eneolithic," told Agerpres, MTC director and historian Gabriel Moisa.

"It seems that it was the grave of a woman, extremely rich. We do not know who she was, here in Sîntandrei. We will make another presentation of the treasure when everything is ready."

According to the archaeologist Dr. Călin Ghemiş, the coordinator of the archaeological sites, the gold hoard is the most important and relevant discovery from an archaeological and heritage point of view.

"Extremely rich for the Copper Age period," estimated somewhere around 4,500 BC." he also adds.

More is yet to learn

The museum is interested in learning more about the woman who buried the treasures. The bones have been carbon-dated and DNA tested in laboratories in Marosvásárhely, Romania, and Holland.

"We want to find out what kind of culture the person belonged to, and also whether the rings were made of gold from the Transylvanian Archipelago," Moisa said.

Other excavations along the route of a new highway under construction in Romania have discovered remains from the Neolithic period, Bronze Age, Roman Empire, and Medieval epoch, according to a post on the museum's Facebook page.

About Ţării Crişurilor Museum

Ţării Crişurilor Museum—a museum complex subordinated to Bihor County Council—is of important cultural significance in Romania, formed by Ţării Crişurilor Museum departments: Archaeology, History, Natural Sciences, Ethnography, Art, Public Relations and Exhibitions, The losif Vulcan Memorial Museum, the Aurel Lazăr Memorial Museum, the Ady Endre Memorial Museum (museums that are part of the Memorial museums, social groups, history of the minorities), and the Vadu Crișului Cave.

According to the statistic of the Ministry of Culture, the museum is ranked fifth in Romania due to the number of museum pieces, over 450.000.